Correction: I told them that hardware comes and goes but software is
forever.
On 06/02/2013 06:03 AM, David Bern wrote:
> Louie:
>> All good ideas. The Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black little Linux
> computers gives us the possibility of running a tracking program such
> as predict
>>http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/predict.html>>> or gpredict
>>http://gpredict.oz9aec.net/>>> in addition to a protocol converter. I especially like the idea of
> controlling a telescope drive. This project could be useful to
> astronomy buffs.
>> I am teaching my students a software engineering principle that it is
> valuable to be as generic as possible; that is, to be platform
> agnostic and protocol agnostic. It is a more work in the short-term
> but the benefits are huge in the long-run. I told them that hard
> comes and goes buy software is forever. On Thursday, I told them, for
> example, that the initial version of a protocol converter would take a
> protocol in and then produce the same protocol out: to really
> understand a protocol, you need to be able to read and write the
> protocol. We dubbed this a "null" protocol converter and it should do
> nothing correctly, i. e. bits in and the same bits out. The plan is
> to implement a "null" protocol converter for the DiSEqC and the
> EasyComm protocols that we are learning. Once we have these two null
> protocol converters working then we have the pieces to easily
> configure a DiSEqC to EasyComm protocol converter.
>> David, WL2NX
>>> On 06/01/2013 10:04 AM, Louis Mamakos wrote:
>> Perhaps this might be of help:http://gatorradio.org/Manuals/Yaesu_GS-232B_Manual.pdf>>>> It might be cool to build the controller around an inexpensive Raspberry-Pi or BeagleBone Linux controller that has an ethernet interface available. You could export a simple REST-based HTTP API, as well as emulating the Yaesu serial protocol over a TCP connection. A simple HTTP API might make testing easier, perhaps. You could easily return status and debugging information if you used an extensible encoding format like JSON.
>>>> For bonus points, you could also implement the Meade or Celestron serial protocol to be able to drive the rotor like it was a telescope mount from various astronomy-oriented programs that might be useful for locating the moon, Jupiter or tracking satellites. It would be a shame to build something new a modern and saddle it with only an ancient serial protocol that might not be the best choice for today.
>>>> Just a thought.
>>>> louie
>> wa3ymh
>>>> On May 31, 2013, at 10:50 AM, David Bern<David.Bern at engineer.com> wrote:
>>>>> Friends:
>>>>>> I am working on a summer project with students at Montgomery College, Rockville. The project is to design and build a device that controls a pair of inexpensive satellite TV rotors. And the device would emulate a popular AZ-EL rotor such as a Yaesu G-5500 AZ-EL controller so it can be used by a satellite tracking program such as SatPC32. Tom, K3IO suggested this project at the last AMSAT-DC workshop and is guiding us with this project.
>>>>>> I would like to borrow a Yaesu G-5500 AZ-EL controller and rotor for about three months or buy a used one so we can study and understand its command protocol.
>>>>>> I will pick up or pay for shipping. Please contact David, W2LNX directly at
>>>>>>W2LNX at amsat.org>>>>>>>>> Thank you,
>>> David, W2LNX
>>> _______________________________________________
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